Food News Round-Up: You're Ordering Your Coffee Wrong

by Michael Y. Park

on 12/03/13 at 06:48 AM

The Buzz on Baristas' Least Favorite Customers: Buzzfeed gets baristas to 'fess up about what kinds of customers they hate the most. Here are a few tips: Don't use Splenda, don't order in Starbucks sizes, put away your phone, don't ordered flavored latte, don't get blended-ice drinks. Kinda makes you want to just make it at home and carry around a thermos.

Time to Stock Up on Big Macs: That is, if you're into fast food. On Thursday, fast-food employees in 100 cities will walk off the job to protest the current minimum wage of $7.25--they want $15 an hour. The National Restaurant Association says that the protests are a PR stunt by labor unions, and that the strikes will probably be made up mostly of union members. An organizer for Fast Food Forward, however, says that the protesters are in earnest, and understand that it'll be a long fight. Everyone else says that Thursday is probably not a good day to ask for extra ketchup at the drive-thru.

Sounds Kosher: Forbes tries to forecast the next big food trend, and offers up the possibility that we'll all be singing the praises of Manischewitz in a few months, especially if producers learn to market the pareve seal to people with food allergies, conquer the "double-edged sword" of its Jewish identity, and take advantage of the fact that Americans have more trust in religious authorities than they do in government agencies. And man, does a kosher chicken make for a tasty roast!

California Girl: Alice Water sits down for a chat with PBS's Judy Woodruff and talks up simple, local ingredients, and says that foods are more flavorful than they were a generation ago. She's too humble to mention, however, that she played no small role in that.

Hot Stuff! Comedian Kyle Kinane launched an epic Twitter war against Pace Salsa over the holiday weekend, which led to a "blackmail for salsa" scheme, the invocation of Winnie from The Wonder Years, strangers dropping off salsa at his home, the totally suspicious silencing of two Pace spokesmen, and a bizarre corporate meltdown unfolding right in public. The best part? Kinane was being pranked by another comedian the entire time. Take that, um ... Twitter-using comedians with strong opinions about salsa?